WEBVTT

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- Good afternoon everyone.

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Thank you for coming, it's
great to have you all here.

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My name is Christopher Ford,

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and I am the Assistant Secretary of State

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for International Security
and Nonproliferation

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at the U.S. Department of State.

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And I'm the head of our
delegation to the Prepcom

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here at the Palais.

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Grateful you guys could all be here today,

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we are pleased to hold this,

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to offer an opportunity
to discuss the details

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of the recently released, or at least,

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released not too long ago,
U.S. Nuclear Posture Review.

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We are pleased to be able to take this

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opportunity to talk
directly with all of you

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about what the NPR says.

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And of course, also about
what it doesn't say,

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because these things are not often as well

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understood as we thing they should be.

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So we are pleased to be able
to have this opportunity.

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There's been a lot written about it,

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some of what is written about
our Nuclear Posture Review

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has been very insightful and thoughtful.

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Some of it, could stand another
rereading of the Review.

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So we can hopefully,
perhaps, bring these factors

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together a little bit and offer a chance

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for you to ask questions, hear from

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and ask questions of some of the folks

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who have been intimately
involved in putting it together.

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So, to that end, I am delighted that we

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are joined by some of
those very key players.

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Joining us, on you see
the screen behind me,

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from the Pentagon, our
colleagues from the Pentagon.

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The Pentagon of course
being the lead in the

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interagency process that created the NPR.

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Joining us by this video teleconference

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from the Office of the
Secretary of Defense

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is Rob Soofer, Deputy
Assistant Secretary of Defense

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for Nuclear and Missile Policy.

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His colleague from the
Joint Chiefs of Staff

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is also joining us, and
that's Gregory Weaver.

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He is Deputy Director
for Strategic Stability

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with the Joint Staff.

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We're delighted that the
technology has made it possible

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for them to join us today,

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and we are looking forward
to hearing from them.

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As I noted, the Defense
Department was the lead

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in putting together the
Nuclear Posture Review.

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It was an interagency
whole of government effort.

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And for the State Department, that effort

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was headed up by the
Bureau of Arms Control,

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Verification and Compliance.

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And with us from that bureau
today is Anita Friedt,

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sitting to my right, to your left.

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She is Acting Assistant
Secretary for that bureau.

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You probably all know
Ambassador Robert Wood,

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who is also here to my
left, to your right.

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Delighted we can have them
as part of the discussion.

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And I should point out that
at the time this all happened,

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I was not in my current
role with the department

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but I ran, I served as Special
Assistant to the President

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and Senior Director for the
Weapons of Mass Destruction

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and Counterproliferation Directorate

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at the United States National
Security Council staff.

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So I hope that between the group of us

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we will be able to handle
any questions you might have,

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and I hope that we will be able to provide

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as much clarity and
explication as can be had

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to help demystify those aspects of the NPR

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which may not be well-understood.

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And to help, advance our
collective understanding

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of how we can address these
issues looking forward.

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So it's a pleasure to be here,
I welcome you to this event.

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We've got a pretty full house,

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I'm looking forward to
hearing your questions

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but we should start by
hearing from our guests

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who will outline key aspects of the Review

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and we can take it on
a question and answer

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basis from there.